I have been wondering where all the bees and butterflies have been this year as there has been little to see in my garden. However, this week things have improved and the Bee and Butterfly bed has rightly deserved its name. The late flowering Lobelia and Phlox have joined in with the party now.
Bees have been seen on the Echinops in the raised bed at the back of the garden as well as happily buzzing around the wild water mint which despite all my efforts to remove it keeps coming back. Still it is nice to see the bees enjoying the flowers.
And there have been butterflies a plenty, though not always easy to photograph. Several Red Admirals have looked very tattered with broken and torn wings. Small Tortoiseshell, Comma and Large Whites have been seen. But I haven’t seen a Peacock in years!
And Geranium ‘Rozanne’ is absolutely smothered in bees and hoverflies and other pollinators. I have only had this plant a couple of years and although I love the way she flowers for months on end I am not happy at how much she loves to spread her wings. For a small garden with even smaller beds maybe this geranium was not the best choice.
It’s been another dry week in the south-east of the country with hosepipe bans being introduced in certain counties. Here in the far west of Cornwall we have had a few early morning showers which although keeping the grass green hasn’t really penetrated very deeply into the soil and some of the containers have had to be watered. Luckily most have pelargoniums in them and they are loving the sun.
As always, if you want a peek over other people’s garden walls then please pop over to our host, the lovely Jon, AKA ‘The Propagator’ where you find links to many more wonderful garden enthusiasts from all over the world.
See here for the participant’s guide.
Cornwall in Colours 
I love my mad, wild blue geraniums! I have a couple in tall pots and they spill over and bring the bees right onto the patio. Amelia
Mmm.. I wonder whether Rozanne would work in a container, I might try that.
I’ve had both Rozanne and Johnson’s blue but now I cannot tell which is which. I was not disappointed with either of them.
I read with interest your comments on Rozanne. I was feeling the same, and a couple will be moved to the front garden, where they can sprawl all over the wood chips. You have been more fortunate in that you have had showers, and I must congratulate you on your superb clear close ups.
I think I’ll try planting some in my ‘wild garden’ where she can romp away. Definitely too vigorous for where she is now. And thank you for your comment on the close ups. I used my prime lens for those photos.
Great to see that your bees and butterflies have turned up! Not so good here – very few butterflies and not as many bees either. Last year was a lot better. On the other hand, there are more birds!
No birds here other than the crows, the jackdaws and the gulls. Though a robin accompanied me in the garden today, sadly I wasn’t able to find any worms for him/her. I have had to stop feeding the birds as rats were coming into the garden.
I don’t feed the birds here because I have cats – who are now a bit old to be able to catch a bird. There’s quite a lot growing that the birds can help themselves to though. And plenty of snails for the thrush family that has taken up residence 🙂 (Lots of tapping sounds…)
I wish I had a thrush or two! Plenty of snails for them. I did see one last winter, but not since.
This is the first time I can remember seeing them here, though it’s possible that there was the odd one unseen. (We had one or two in the garden in Scotland.) I was delighted to see a family of them appear at the pond here. 🙂
Beautiful! We need our bees! 🐝🐝 Where I live I am seeing bees, but not many butterflies so far. We had outstanding summer rains last year, not so much yet this year. 😕
I used to get a lot more butterflies than I have this year. But I am glad that some have returned. And bees are always lovely to see and hear in the garden.
Pelargoniums are my choice for pots in the sun too. They seem to cope well with drying out. Your echinops look lovely and blue (they can be a bit grey).
Yes these echinops are a lovely colour and attracting the bees. I thought I had lost a lot of my pelargoniums but they seem to be coming back after quite a drastic crop.
So many wonderful images of summer!
All full on now and hard to keep up with. I really need to make some changes this autumn so I am able to cope with the maintenance of the garden.
The colours in your bee garden are beautifully coordinated and create a feeling of lazy summer warmth, which I know you have a-plenty. But I can feel it here and nearly smell the flowers!
Last summer there didn’t seem to be as many insects in my garden as usual. I hope it isn’t the same this coming summer.
All the garden is buzzing now! But I do need to empty this bed as some plants are dominating and getting far too big for their boots. A task for the autumn.
Visiting another country I’m surprised to see the diversity of insects and birds. here there are many bumblebees and few bees. On the other hand, I have a lot more butterflies at home than here (even if there are different varieties of course…)
Here in Canada, no slugs & snails, nor beetles… there are lots of big birds, rodents, squirrels…. very surprising. Returning to your Six, the bees and bumblebees are everywhere and take advantage of the pollen flowers.
I think I might have cracked why I haven’t been able to comment on your blog recently, Jude, and suspect that Firefox was preventing a pop-up that allowed me to click on the WordPress symbol under the ‘let’s have a conversation’ box…too tired to check it now now, but I am hopeful, especially if this posts…!
Ah, I read somewhere else that Firefox was causing an issue. I wonder if that is the case with thequiltinggardener? I’ll have to ask her what she uses.
Using my laptop last night I just happened to notice a message at the top of the screen (which may well have come up every other time too!) which said a pop-up was trying to open. I also have Firefox on my tablet but not my phone so will look out for some indication of how to unblock pop-ups the next time I use the tablet. There have been very many comments that haven’t reached you! 😁 Hope the QG can resolve her issue too…
Your green thumb continues to amaze poor black thumb me Jude. I so loved the purple flowers with the bees.(Are they the Echinops?) All glorious but those especially.
They are indeed. Odd spiky flowers but bees love them.